


Movie Night In

by purajobot935



Series: Second Life [3]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: AU after MTMTE 22, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, CD-RW mentioned, CyGate mentioned, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, MTMTE, Memories, Memory Loss, Movie Night, Movie Reference, Near Death Experiences, Rewind/Tailgate if you squint hard, or Tailgate tries to be a good friend, tank!Rewind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 13:00:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1146290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purajobot935/pseuds/purajobot935
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tailgate and Rewind re-start movie night, but what's supposed to be a night of light-hearted fun turns into something a little less joyful when there's still a few wounds to heal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Movie Night In

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this post by Tumblr user 'fabail': _Tailgate’s favorite movie of the year is Pacific Rim because of the sheer amount of heroism in it, and the fact that Gypsy Danger kinda resembles him. He probably cried at the end because it was so good... And then he became very sad when Rewind told him that it was just a fabricated story._
> 
> Yeah, so it was supposed to be this funny little one-shot of Tailgate reacting as he watches "Pacific Rim". The two of them had other ideas though and turned it into this... I don't even know what to say.

**Movie Night In**

“So, where is everyone?” Tailgate looked up from where he was reclined in his berth at his smaller friend who occupied the armchair beside him. “I thought it was movie night?”

The black-and-white minibot sighed. “They couldn’t make it. Some… things… have come up and everyone’s really busy out there.”

“Oh. Well I guess that’s a good enough reason to bail. No movie night, then.” Tailgate tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice, but he knew he must have failed when he noticed the other mech shift in his chair. “Shouldn’t you be out there, too, though Rewind? I mean, now that you’re…” He waved a hand at the small pair of cannons that extended up from Rewind’s back.

There was a moment’s pause before the other mech shook his head. “Nah. They’ve got it under control… and we’re still going to have movie night.”

“But how? There’s just the two of us.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing! It’s just… Chromedome won’t mind?”

Rewind only laughed and Tailgate realized how much he had missed his cheerful friend while the smaller mech had been… away. Yes, away. Not dead. “Domey won’t mind if Cyclonus won’t.” Part of the mech’s visor gave a quick flicker of a wink that had Tailgate nervously clear his vocalizer.

“He… he won’t mind either. He’d say it was good for my recovery.”

“Then aid the recovery we shall.” Rewind powered up his camera. A camera, Tailgate noticed, that looked a little different to the one he had before. “What would you like to watch?”

“Something fun; not too complicated, with some action and interesting characters.”

“That’s not narrowing it down at all,” Rewind teased, his visor dimming as he searched his databanks. “I have just the thing… umm here… somewhere, hang on.” 

Tailgate noticed a touch of frustration color his voice. Before… _Before_ , he knew Rewind would have found what he wanted in an instant. Now, Tailgate noticed, he took a bit longer; sometimes only an extra second or two, but it was still long enough for Tailgate to wonder if he wasn’t the only one still recovering. Rewind may have returned to them guns blazing, but it didn’t mean he had healed completely. He knew what it was like to touch death and then be pulled back.

And Rewind had never mentioned the extent of his injuries nor how long it had been before he was rescued and repaired… and no one had asked, not that he knew of. Chromedome had probably asked.

“Y’know, it’s no trouble,” Tailgate said. “Just play whatever movie you’ve got on hand.”

“No, no. I need to find it.” Rewind’s hand had a death-grip on the armrest of the chair. “Helps with putting things in order. Almost got it.” 

Tailgate’s hand rested over it and gave a little squeeze of support. “Tell me a bit about it then.”

“Earth movie. Came out a long time ago; some time in 2013, by Earth’s Gregorian calendar reckoning. I remember going to watch it in their cinemas once and… hey! I actually remember that!” Rewind perked up a little more.

“You’ve been to Earth then?”

“Oh yes. Nice planet that. Colorful, and lots of life everywhere. It was a living planet. So unlike what Cybertron was at the time. It was a nice change.”

Tailgate hadn’t realized he’d missed the excitement in the little bot’s voice until he heard it now. If he thought about it, Rewind had seemed a little more subdued, and he wondered if it was linked to the disarray of his memory banks. How had his databanks even become so scattered?

“The humans were friendly,” Rewind went on. “Well, at least the ones that weren’t scared of us, but I guess me being small had something to do with it. Everyone’s shape serves a purp…”

The white-and-blue minibot looked over when Rewind stopped mid-sentence, in time to catch the slight narrowing of the corners of his friend’s visor. He felt the smaller white hand tense under his again. “Rewind?” Tailgate wondered if he shouldn’t call Chromedome… or Ratchet… or even Rung.

“Ah! Found it.”

“Rewind, if you’d rather rest, we don’t have to…”

“Don’t be silly, Tailgate, I’m sitting here watching movies with you. It doesn’t get any more restful than this.” His camera flickered to life. “Now hush, I’m about to start it.”

“Then at least come sit up here with me.”

“Now that I will do.” Rewind was out of the chair in a second, climbing on to the berth and reclining beside Tailgate. “Much better. Your chair’s getting a little hard.”

Before Tailgate could wonder much more, the projection on the wall flickered to life as the movie started up.

=====

It was a good movie, Tailgate thought as he became engrossed in the story of monsters, machines, and the humans who lived with them. He could see why some of the others like Rewind had some fond memories of these particular life forms – they were small, but tenacious, and rather creative with the right technology.

“I can guess what inspired this,” he commented to Rewind as he took in the mechs the dark-skinned human was introducing to the other male and female. “That red one looks an awful lot like Whirl, come to think of it.”

Rewind chuckled. “He might have… stopped by the planet once.”

“Oh! They rescued _Gipsy Danger_! I’m so glad. She’s my favourite of all the mechs.”

Neither of them mentioned that it was probably because she looked a little like Tailgate himself, and if the corners of the white-and-blue mech’s visor leaked a little optic fluid towards the end, Rewind merely handed him a cloth and patted him on the back. 

“It’s okay. I may have cried a little bit, too, the first time I watched it,” Rewind said.

“It’s not okay!” Tailgate thought he might have startled himself as well with his sudden exclamation. “It’s not okay when people die! How do people even go on when they suddenly find themselves without a person they’ve known their whole life?!” 

Rewind realized that he wasn’t talking about the movie anymore. “You almost died, too, Tailgate.”

“I was _dying_. People knew that. They knew it was coming, or at least some of them did. You were dead! You were gone, Rewind, just like that and you weren’t coming back. It wasn’t fair. You were one of my first friends, and I couldn’t even say goodbye to you, or give you any comforting words or, or… sing to you. I didn’t even know where to begin to avenge you.”

“Tailgate…” Rewind wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “I’m here now. And you don’t need to avenge me.”

“And Chromedome was so broken after that.”

“Oh.”

The arm withdrew from his shoulders and Tailgate looked over to see Rewind frown before he realized what he had just said. “That’s not what I meant; I’m not blaming you for what you did. It wasn’t your fault – you saved us all. It was… it was just a shock.”

Rewind still sat as he was, hands in his lap and looking slightly vacant. Tailgate suddenly noticed that the ever-present camera on the side of his head was dark, and he frowned. As far as he knew, Rewind never switched off his camera, ever, and his concern that his friend – though physically healed – was still suffering from some kind of other hurt only deepened.

“Rewind?”

“It’s just a headache.”

“I can call Ratchet.”

“It’s alright. They’ve been happening on and off, ever since I came back online.”

“But WHY are they happening?” Tailgate was close to either calling for help or knocking Rewind out and dragging him down to the medi-bay himself.

“I lost my camera when….” Rewind paused. “I lost my camera.” He touched the side of his head. “It scrambled my memory banks and… I’m still trying to put it back in order, see what’s still there, what was lost. Because I know I lost… things. It’s hard to store too many new memories until I can sort out what I already have and… it’s taking some time to do that.”

Tailgate was at a loss. He wanted nothing more than to help his friend, but sorting through memories and putting them in order – it was so far out of his league. “Maybe Rung could…”

“Rung cannot help me.”

Neither of them named the one mech they both knew could probably help.

“I’ll be alright,” Rewind said after a moment. “It doesn’t affect me other than taking me a bit of extra time to recall certain things.”

Another moment of silence passed before Rewind shifted and moved to get off the berth. “I should go, see what Domey’s up to.”

Tailgate moved to follow him, silencing Rewind’s protests that he shouldn’t be tiring himself out. “I need to get out of here for a little while or I’ll go crazy. Besides, I should make sure Cyclonus isn’t brooding away in some dark corner again.”

Just before they parted ways in the corridor, Tailgate reached over and pulled Rewind into a tight hug, smiling a bit at the squeak Rewind made. “I’m glad you’re not dead.”

Rewind felt himself relax a little in Tailgate’s embrace and returned the hug. 

“So am I, Tailgate. So am I.”

~END.


End file.
